This is a blog site to accompany the Jokeyphone site. Part of the reason for the blog site is for myself and the others here at Jokeyphone to explain what it is we want to do with Jokeyphone, and why. The main goal though is to celebrate, venerate, and invigorate the great street level joke. To bring it into the new century, to modernize and revamp it in delivery and posture. That is the goal of Jokeyphone. To help the world tell, hear, and pass along great jokes.
I love jokes. My father loved jokes. My earliest memories were my parents and my father’s friends sitting around our dinner table swapping jokes. My father could tell an amazing joke. He truly was gifted as a joke-teller. He had a pitch perfect delivery and great timing. Not only could he tell a good joke, he had an amazing memory for jokes which is something that I’ve never had. He had what Johnny Carson had, an unbelievable ability to recall jokes in perfect tune with the conversation. No matter what subject you were on, he would remember a joke that fit it as if it were custom written. ‘That reminds me of the joke about the guy trying to hand curtain rods..’ For some reasons the jokes always fit right in, they made sense that that’s why they were told, never felt clunky or a non sequitur that stopped the flow.
When I did standup I never forgot a joke and could remember other comics ‘bits’ and entire Robert Klein albums word for word for years, yet jokes only last in my brain one, two or at best three jokes at a time. No matter how funny it is, I have trouble recalling it later. For that reason, (and many others) I used to call my old man whenever I heard a new joke and tell it to him. I knew that once he knew it I could always go back and get it again. ‘Hey dad, what’s the one about the old Jewish car thief?’ When he died a little over a year ago, I realized that I had no place to store the jokes anymore and that raised the loss to a level even deeper that it already was.
About a week later, a good friend sent me an email that basically had this joke written out;
A blonde goes into a library and says to the librarian, ‘I’d like a cheeseburger and fries.’ The librarian looks at her and sternly states, ‘Young lady, look around please, this is a library you’re in!’ The blonde looks around, bends over toward him, whispers contritely and says ‘I’m sorry’…I’d like a cheeseburger and fries please.’
I remember thinking as much as I’d heard it before, that it wasn’t funny written down. Then I thought, why are people still e-mailing jokes written out that way? It seems archaic in the time of web video. Why isn’t there a site that allows you to use your webcam, record a joke and send it along that way. I looked and nothing existed like that, so I got my friend Erik Gordon involved and we have spent over a year creating Jokeyphone.
The goal was simple. Help people tell, hear, and pass along great jokes.
The dream was to make the best joke site in the world, and the task was to bring back the joke. Again, to celebrate, venerate, and invigorate the joke.
This blog will help do that. We will be looking at jokes on the site. Talking about other joke sites on the web. Reviewing Joke books. Looking at jokes in the media. Jokes in movies. Political jokes from the talk shows, and the news shows.
We will be highlighting people who tell good jokes on Jokeyphone, which are the most viewed jokes, which jokes are the high rated and more important, why. We will study, discuss, dissect, catalog, and database the world’s great jokes. We will be deep up to our asses in jokes.
We look forward to hearing your comments, and if you have any thoughts or ideas not only for blog posts, but as to how we can achieve these goals we’ve set out we’d love to hear them.
Mike Binder
This is a blog site to accompany the Jokeyphone site. Part of the reason for the blog site is for myself and the others here at Jokeyphone to explain what it is we want to do with Jokeyphone, and why. The main goal though is to celebrate, venerate, and invigorate the street level joke. To bring it into the new century, modernize and revamp it in delivery and posture. That is the goal of Jokeyphone; To help the world tell, hear, and pass along great jokes.
I love jokes. My father loved jokes. My earliest memories were my parents and my father’s friends sitting around our dinner table swapping jokes. My father could tell an amazing joke. He truly was gifted as a joke-teller. He had a pitch perfect delivery and great timing. Not only could he tell a good joke, he had an amazing memory for jokes which is something that I’ve never had. He had what Johnny Carson had, an unbelievable ability to recall jokes in perfect tune with the conversation. No matter what subject you were on, he would remember a joke that fit it as if it were custom written. ‘That reminds me of the joke about the guy trying to hang curtain rods..’ For some reasons the jokes always fit right in, they made sense that that’s why they were told, never felt clunky or a non sequitur that stopped the flow.
